Various techniques or balloon constructions have been employed to facilitate the folding of the balloon about the balloon catheter in a uniform manner upon evacuation and deflation of the balloon after use.
One method employed to improve the refoldability of the balloon and improve withdrawal, has been to fold the balloon to form a number of wings. Prior to use, the balloon is typically folded or wrapped about the balloon catheter to fit within and pass through the guide catheter lumen. When inflation fluid is applied to the deflated balloon, the balloon wings or flaps unwrap and the balloon inflates to a fully expanded condition. When in the deflated state, the balloon collapses upon itself forming flaps or wings that must be folded or wrapped around the balloon catheter to allow it to be withdrawn from the patient's vasculature after use.
A number of approaches have been employed in forming a balloon that will refold into wings or flaps about the catheter shaft.
See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,226,887, 5,318,587, 5,456,666 and 5,478,319 for various methods of improving balloon collapsibility after inflation. The entire content of these patents is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
The ability to withstand high inflation pressures and yet be compatible with small sheath sizes are major factors in developing reinforced and multi-layer balloon designs. There remains a need, however, for innovative and improved rewrappable reinforced balloons.
The art referred to and/or described above is not intended to constitute an admission that any patent, publication or other information referred to herein is “prior art” with respect to this invention.
All US patents and applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Without limiting the scope of the invention a brief summary of the claimed embodiments of the invention is set forth below. Additional details of the summarized embodiments of the invention and/or additional embodiments of the invention may be found in the Detailed Description of the Invention below.